Genesis 19:3
וַיִּפְצַר־בָּם מְאֹד וַיָּסֻרוּ אֵלָיו וַיָּבֹאוּ אֶל־בֵּיתוֹ וַיַּעַשׂ לָהֶם מִשְׁתֶּה וּמַצּוֹת אָפָה וַיֹּאכֵֽלוּ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיִּפְצַר־בָּ֣ם מְאֹ֔ד וַיָּסֻ֣רוּ אֵלָ֔יו וַיָּבֹ֖אוּ אֶל־בֵּית֑וֹ וַיַּ֤עַשׂ לָהֶם֙ מִשְׁתֶּ֔ה וּמַצּ֥וֹת אָפָ֖ה וַיֹּאכֵֽלוּ׃
καὶ παρεβιόζετο αὐτούς, καὶ ἐξέκλιναν πρὸς αὐτόν. καὶ εἰσῆλθον εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν αὐτοῦ· καὶ ἐποίησεν αὐτοῖς πότον καὶ ἀζύμους ἒπεψεν αὐτοῖς, καὶ ἔφαγον ωρὸ τοῦ κοιμηθῆναι.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Compulit illos oppido ut diverterent ad eum: ingressisque domum illius fecit convivium, et coxit azyma, et comederunt.
Pero Lot les insistió tanto que fueron con él y entraron en su casa. Allí les preparó una gran cena, horneó pan sin levadura, y ellos comieron.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Mas él porfió con ellos mucho, y se vinieron con él, y entraron en su casa; é hízoles banquete, y coció panes sin levadura, y comieron.
But Lot insisted so strongly that they followed him into his house. He prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
✦ What the text says
Summary
The verse narrates Lot urging the two visitors until they agreed to turn aside and enter his house, where he prepared a meal, baked unleavened bread, and they ate. The Hebrew uses a chain of consecutive narrative verbs to move the action forward quickly, from insistence to eating.
Key words
- yifzar ("he urged", H6484) — qal narrative form, opening the verse; combined with me'od ("exceedingly", H3966) it intensifies Lot's insistence.
- yasuru ("they turned aside", H5493) — qal narrative, marking the visitors' change of direction in response to the urging.
- yavo'u ("they went/entered", H0935) — qal narrative, the third verb in the chain, bringing the guests physically into the house.
- mishteh ("a feast", H4960) — masculine singular noun, the meal Lot prepares; the term is related to drinking, though here rendered as a general feast.
- afah ("he baked", H0644) — qal perfect, not narrative like the surrounding verbs; this shift in verbal form sets the baking of unleavened bread slightly apart from the main narrative sequence.
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence is built as a rapid sequence of vav-consecutive narrative verbs: yifzar ("he urged"), yasuru ("they turned aside"), yavo'u ("they went in"), ya'as ("he prepared"), and yokhelu ("they ate"). This chain creates a continuous, linear flow of action typical of Hebrew narrative prose, where each verb picks up directly from the previous one without additional connectors beyond "and."
Within this chain, afah ("he baked", H0644) stands out because it is marked as a perfect form rather than a narrative form like the verbs around it. This shift can indicate that the baking of the matzot ("unleavened breads", H4682) is presented as a completed background action tied to the preparation of the mishteh ("feast", H4960), rather than simply another step in the main narrative sequence. The construct form beito ("his house", from H1004B with pronominal suffix) ties the entering action directly to Lot's own dwelling, marking it as his personal residence.
Differences between versions
The LXX adds a temporal clause absent from the Hebrew and the Vulgate: πρὸ τοῦ κοιμηθῆναι ("before going to sleep"), specifying a time frame for the eating that is not present in the Hebrew text. The LXX also renders mishteh ("feast", H4960) as πότον ("a drinking, a drink-feast"), emphasizing the drinking aspect, whereas the Vulgate uses convivium ("banquet") and the Hebrew term itself is more general. The Vulgate's compulit illos oppido ("he compelled them utterly") conveys the intensity of yifzar... me'od ("he urged... exceedingly") but frames it with a stronger verb of compulsion than the Hebrew's verb of urging.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.